but let things just carry on as they are now......................................

Just some things to think about:

Would we eventually destroy ourselves or would there be a massive Christian-Crusade revival?

Would the Muslims eventually rule the Earth?

Would we just keep having endless cycles of war... peace... war... peace?

What other outcomes can you think of?

Imagine neither the rapture nor the Tribulation taking place for another century or maybe two or three centuries (longer if you wish).

By the way, I'm not saying it won't - this is just hypothetical. I still picture a World with the Holy Spirit being here, but also Satan's presence too. Just imagine Good and Evil fighting it out for a lot longer than we expect.

Please discuss your opinions on this. I'm not offering alternative scripture - I'm just keen to see how you picture God's relationship with man, man's relationship with God, and what happens when God leaves us to our own devices.

Exactly, so why did God choose the prophecies as he did? What would have happened if he hadn't?

Here's my take on it.

God knew how we would advance technologically. He knew how we would progress. The nation of Israel could not have been formed, in say the Eighteenth or Nineteenth centuries.

There were not enough Global influences to enable it to happen. The Bible predicts many Jews returning to Israel by air. Not possible until air travel had been invented and developed.

Also God wants to save as many of us as possible. Until printing became accessible to Christian countries, there could have been no mass production of Bibles.

Also, thanks to telecommunications, radio, TV and so on, the gospel can now be preached to every corner of the Earth.

And so on.....

If the End Times were delayed now, we would suffer unnecessarily. It would be a constant struggle of good and evil. God would be dithering if he had made his decisions differently, but he is perfect and has made the perfect plan.

God has given us a period of grace to show us how we can't manage without him, but to give us chance to try, so that we can't ever question it again.

If this cycle was allowed to continue the wars would get worse and worse. I don't think Islam would take over the entire World but it would take over most of it, and reach a flash point which would probably trigger off World War Three and maybe a Global thermonuclear war. Many other souls would be lost as Islam took over more territory and blocked access to scripture. Israel would be trapped in an endless struggle for survival with countless more Israeli and Palestinian deaths in an endless cycle of birth, death, birth and death.

Decadence would completely consume the Globe with homosexuality, Atheism, New Age religions, Marxism and all sorts of other depravities. God would have abandoned us when we most needed him and his creation would be in danger of destroying itself as Satan just continued the fight to obliterate everyone.

That's why God had a plan that would be triggered into action once the Jews had their own state again. He is trying to show us that we need him and cannot function under our own laws.

He is giving us our last chances to turn back to him, before he unleashes the final test the Tribulation.

If he had decided to delay his prophecies now, not only would he break his promise but we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

We've managed for nearly two thousand years of grace but that's only because the Holy Spirit, the restrainer has kept evil on a leash. Now the leash is no longer tight so there is no going back.

All you have mentioned is going to happen. I am not sure if you think it will not.

"the wars would get worse and worse" - Revelation 6:1-8 - the four horsemen

1st horseman - "He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." 2nd horseman - "And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another." 4th horseman - "power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth."

"Decadence would completely consume the Globe with homosexuality, Atheism, New Age religions, Marxism and all sorts of other depravities."

Luke 17:22-30 - Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 - But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

"If he had decided to delay his prophecies now, not only would he break his promise but we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer." - We need to be careful not to fall into the same group of doubters spoken of in 2 Peter 3:1-7

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

All you have mentioned is going to happen. I am not sure if you think it will not.

"the wars would get worse and worse" - Revelation 6:1-8 - the four horsemen

1st horseman - "He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." 2nd horseman - "And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another." 4th horseman - "power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth."

"Decadence would completely consume the Globe with homosexuality, Atheism, New Age religions, Marxism and all sorts of other depravities."

Luke 17:22-30 - Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 - But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

"If he had decided to delay his prophecies now, not only would he break his promise but we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer." - We need to be careful not to fall into the same group of doubters spoken of in 2 Peter 3:1-7

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Yes, all of this will happen anyway but it would get far worse if the plan was delayed. The plan is very timely.

I'm not a doubter by the way. I'm trying to show how perfect God's plan is by giving an alternative suggestion. Sometimes you can understand God's plan for us better if you show the horrors

of what would happen without it, or if it was hindered in any way (not that it could be - purely hypothetical).

Also, I forgot to mention that if the plan was delayed, Israel could never have the breathing space to build the Temple and the Tribulation could not start. There has to be a period of (false) peace in order for this to take place.

....................................................................I just really don't picture the big picture without God because without Him, we would not be here........just sayin

Yes, sorry. It's just my way of understanding things. It's probably part of my history.

I came to God through studying Islam. I always knew it was a lie but I wanted to understand the structure of the lie. It was not until I worked all that out did the Holy Spirit guide me to the Bible. Everything I understand about the Bible comes from recognising the lie. If you eliminate the lie all you're left with is the truth. The Bible has never failed me in this respect and everything I've learned about God makes me understand the truth and now I can see the lie far clearer than ever before. Every time the Holy Spirit reveals a new truth to me, I discover another lie in this World that I hadn't spotted before.

Therefore I often ask what if God hadn't done something, then it makes me understand better why he did it.

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One point. GOD is not fighting it out with Satan. Satan is the god of this world. GOD controls the big picture, but the devil is in the details. Just as Jesus touched Jacob on the thigh when they "wrestled," to show him that GOD could have crushed him at any time, GOD is allowing Satan to cause all the hate and discontent that is occurring now until the last person has converted. Then He will meet us in the sky and take us Home. It is then that the "stuff" will really hit the fan.